Character Sheet
This article will provide a summary of the main characters that will appear in the various stories concerning Vicendum. The information provided here is OOC, plot-specific information about the characters, providing insights into their personalities, their backstories and any other information that is relevant to their narrative and the stories they will appear in. Introduction It is important to understand that the information provided here is not the same as the information that is provided on the Wiki outside of the Backgrounder pages. Those non-Backgrounder pages are written "in-universe" and thus cover information that, within Vicendum, would be considered "public knowledge", while the information provided here are the characters' backgrounds and other basic information that provide context for how they are used and operate within the stories. Thus, those articles may differ from the information provided here because it is presented within a different context. The characters are not listed in any kind of order and may appear in many different story series. Vicendum does not have a single "main" character or characters designated as conventional heroes or villains- in keeping with the theme of the project, the characters align and conflict with each other based on their own motivations and beliefs, not because one is "right" and one is "wrong". Some characters may possess traits where it could be perceived that a character is heroic or villainous, but no character fits completely into one mould or the other- it's all open to interpretation. Finally, please note this list is not "exhaustive"- it will be added to as more stories are written- and the information here just concerns the basics of what is needed to understand the character. For story-specific information, read the stories. Character Archetypes On the main page, I explained that Vicendum's society is split into four different perspectives. Every character listed here (as well as those not listed here) will operate under one of those perspectives, as that perspective will be the "culture" they are immersed in. For more information on those different cultures, see the Premise. Beyond that, the characters will be divided into three different groups or archetypes that provide the basics for that character's line of thinking and who they might align with. Mainstream The Mainstream side are the characters who align themselves with their country's "mainstream" way of doing things. They uphold the laws, practice the country's norms, they work in their country's "conventional" fields and are, in short, good, upstanding citizens of their country. Those in the mainstream seek to uphold and protect the institutions and the norms the country has- "the system", so to speak- and if anyone within the Mainstream believes their country or society needs a change, they work "within the system" in order to accomplish it. This is because the core of the Mainstream side is that law and order is paramount to the operation of the country- without the structure that brings to the country, society as they know it will collapse. Included within this group are the government themselves, as they are the ones that set the laws and the order the country operates by. This group also includes many (but not all) politicians, law enforcement agents and any others who work for the government, as they would not enter those jobs without at least a passing interest in maintaining the order within their country. You will also find a lot of the countries' celebrities and a lot of their "conventionally rich" people in this group since, being at the top of their country's "food chain" they have a vested interest in maintaining the order that brought them to the top in the first place. Criminals The antithesis to the Mainstream in every way. They may not break all of the country's laws- and they may not even have been caught breaking any laws- but they certainly do not follow their country's laws because they want to. They oppose everything their country or society stands for, doing so either openly or clandestinely, and they seek to undermine their nation in any way possible. Some want to set up their own "counter-culture" in place of the country's current mainstream, while others just want to cause havoc. Criminal types come from all different kinds of fields and backgrounds, as well as many different social strata (such as being an elite or being among the poor) but a few commonalities exist. Most work in illegal trades, such as the slave market, money laundering, narcotics, terrorism or the black market, either at the head of these organizations or as a part of them. Others may work in more "conventional" fields but they break the law in other ways, like using their business as a "front" for illegal trades or using their job to supplement their criminal career, such as embezzlement or a serial killer with a day job. Others still may be "lone wolves" that are capable of turning their criminality into a career, such as the career thief or the assassin. Whatever their cause celebre may be, the one thing that makes the criminal is their defiance of their country's laws and social norms. Heroes and Heroines I know I said in the "Introduction" that Vicendum has no heroes or villains. What I meant is that Vicendum has no heroes or villains in the traditional sense of the term- that is, the hero is good and the villain is bad. No, in this case, the Hero- or Heroine in its feminine form- are those who mix parts of the Mainstream and Criminal ways of operation. They are Vicendum's mavericks, who have their own "special mission" and thus they align themselves with those whom they see fit- basically, anyone who they feel can help them out. They may not necessarily want to violate a country's laws or its norms, but if a law or a cultural practice gets in their way, they are not afraid to violate it. Like Criminals, the Hero can come from a wide variety of different fields and backgrounds, as well as a wide variety of social strata and job classifications. They can be upstanding citizens or immersed in the most illegal of practices, with the line being blurry at times between the Hero and the other two groups. What separates the Hero from the Criminal is that the Hero does not necessarily want to destroy the country or society they operate in- they just want to make it "better", at least what they perceive would be better for society. As for the Hero versus the Mainstream, the Hero determines they are not "slaves to the rules" like the Mainstream types believe- they may not want to openly or brazenly defy laws or practices, but they will do so if it serves their purpose. Characters For a complete list, updated regularly, see the Character Profiles at DeviantArt (NSFW) See also * Main page * Geopolitics Basics * A Note on Alternative History __FORCETOC__ Category:Backgrounders